Damn bro. Seriously regretting sending you the Craigslist link to this! Haha! Looks tasty tho. Pretty sure you'll never see another one of these on Craigslist. Run of the mill or not...strictly bad ass.

JT.. I owe you...no question. The snare needs some serious cleaning and maybe a fresh shot of high gloss laquer on the shell.I may need to replace the top hoop, but won't know until I get into cleaning & polishing.

Nice drum but just the regular AW458 Mastercraft Superstar 14x8. I want an Aqua one of those :) The Mega 8 Maple (I'm pretty sure) had a vertical seam and re rings. Short (pre 'Mighty') lugs too. The only ones I have seen are Gloss Maple lacquered.

I keep forgeting to reply to you. I work a day job and run a buisness at night so my time is screwed. I had that exact same drum and sold it a few years back to a guy in.. I think Delaware!! My thought was always that when Tama/Hoshino bought Camco and set up manufacturing for them in Bensalem Pa they used Jasper shells that they got from the buy out of Camco. The thing is I have heard that in the late years of Camco they changed to Keller. I still say the Mega 8 is a Jasper shell though. The Mega 8 is also the only drum Tama made that was Made In USA!!

Your shell was not advertised or cataloged. The Mega8 ads only say Maple. They did have that same lug arrangement available on the Mega8. The maple Mega is a thin maple shell ^ read above^ and has no rerings but does have the vertical seam! They all.. and I have owned 3, are dated on the inside bottom edge. Again all made in Hoshinos shop in PA. long of the short I have no idea what the # of your drum is.. Mega8 or Artwood?? I know this your drum was made in Japan!! The 18ply shell your thinking of were the Gibraltar and were a mid `80's drum. I'll see if I can send you a copy of that ad!!

How stupid am I? Just goes to show sometimes your brain fill in the gaps with what it thinks it knows.

The first time I looked at it, I saw the finish, and looked no further...didn't even notice the split lugs!!!

My bad. So fair enough to say it's not the standard AW458.

My (perhaps incorrect) assumption was that they only used the split lugs and the short double end ones before the 'Mighty' lugs came along. Cobham had a split lugger on the triple bass yellow-red-black kit in 1980. The first cataloge to have them is dated Dec 81, and is also the first catalogue I've seen with an 8", the AW458.

Red, I thought the Mega 8 had re rings, and I was sure the photo that made me think so was yours. I just had another look and the shell has no ring, but just the way the photo is the actual edge looks like the top of a re ring...so an optical illusion I got sucked in to.

Safe to say I don't know what the model number is either, but I don't believe it's a Mega 8 because of the diagonal seam. And the early format 6 digit serial # that the pics I have seen have got. Just looking at your drum yak, given that the serial would date it as 82, if it didn't have 10 lugs per side I'd think it was a cut down X-Tras tom...I can't work out why Tama would be putting split lugs on when they would have had Mighty's available, unless it was a special order...

Like you said Aje you thought the split lugs were made before the mighty lugs came out and all indications point to that being true. The mahogany snare above as we know has the standard 2nd gen Superstar birch shell which came out in late `79. The mighty lug came out in what?? `81 so we have a 2 year area where these lugs would have been used. If you look at the endorsers from `78-81 quite a few are using double lug 8" snares. The Fleetwood Rosewood kit I have is missing a matching snare with this lug arrangement.

Frank Beard (zztop) received a early prototype Rosewood 8x14 with double lugs. There is a picture of Stan Lynch with one. i think Tama was testing out the 8x14 market in `78`79 and got feed back from players and .. they came about in `80. It's funny but I guess since the Mega8 ad is the only one that as far as I know shows a 8x14 with double lugs many would assume this Birch snare is a Mega8. I don't think it is.

I do want to know if that is my old snare drum!! Does it have lots of pitting on the hoops??

Hey Guys , thanks for the great info. Obliously the verdict is still up in the air...lolThats ok....it's clear that this is a somewhat rare snare weather it's a MEGA8 or not.

I'll just call it an AW458 with split lugs for now.

Red : the drum has lots of whiteish buildup, that looks like pitting at first.It's almost like little barnacles ??? It seems to come right off with a good polish.I do see some very fine micro pitting. but you really have to look hard to see it. I just cleaned one small area so far, but I will be stripping it downfor a complete cleanup & reassembly. I don't see any signs of rust.The screws that hold the butt end plates on, are Phillips head, as is my 83- 8" superstar, yet my 83-6" mastercraftchrome imperialstar has tiny square end screws like mini tension rods.This snare has 6.10.24 stamped inside the shell along the diagonal seam.It has a nice warm, somewhat reddish stain on the outside with just a sealer on the inside. The inside isclearly birch, but I'm not sure if the outer ply is birch. You had mentioned rosewood. Is that just a stain color Tama used or was it realrosewood with a stain applied ? I bought from a guy in Anchorage. I failed to ask himwhere he got it from, however I just sent him a note asking that question. He said he willget back to me. I would greatly appreciate a copy of that Mega8 dealer sheet. you can send the pix in an attachment topontiyak@telusplanet.net

or e-mail me your phone # and I will call you with a fax #Thanks again for your input & knowledge.

I'm Getting closer to nailing down this drum. First of, the bottom bearing edge is a perfect match to the top edge with Tama'sdual 45 degree bearing edge, and perfect snare beds milled across on both sides. Also the lug spacing from the edges of the snare is identical. The badge has not been removed or replaced. I've removed a few badges, and it is impossible to do it without leaveing some trace of prying or scraping.Therefore I am sure that this is not a cut down tom tom. The shell is 9mm birch, light brown on the inside, and it has a slightly rough feel to it.The outside is a high gloss lacquered finish, and after scanning about 50 pixs of 82 vintage drums I have come to the comclusion it is a Super Mahoganyfinish. Aje-Drum's section on identifing your supes has a pix of a super mahogany set, and this snare matches almost perfectly.

With that said I beleive I have an 82 - 14 x 8 AW458 Super Mahogany c/w split lugs.

Since the mighty lugs came out in 81' I have to assume that either Tama used up some leftover single lugs or thiswas a special order. I think it more logical that this was a special order, in that Tama continued to use the single lugs on certain snares when this snare was built.

The chrome is cleaning up nicely. I need both hoops to make it super clean (bummer). The shell has a few boo boos and is going to be cleaned upand re-lacqured by a pro furniture/piano restorer.

I have never seen an older Tama snare with the standard Superstar tom lugs on it like that. It's possible it was ordered like that somehow, but it's just as possible someone slapped some Superstar lugs on there after the fact.

jweiss : Hi thanks for your input. It is entirerly possible that someone upgraded from the short double lug, or even the long mighty lugs tothe split lug. I checked the hole spacing and both of the double ended lugs fit. One would just have to drill the upper holes to use the Imp/Sup single tom lugs.

However I also got out a large magnifyng glass and a good light and looked very closely where the double ended lugsmight have been. Lugs always leave an imprint in the lacquer when removed. I see no surface or underlying imprint of either of the other two types of lugs. Only the imprint of the single lugs, which is very oblious. Sombody would have had to take this shell right down to almost bare woodand then re-lacquer, in order to do such a clean switchover. I also doubt that a switch was made, as this drum had YEARS worth of stick dust and fibres built up between the top hoop & the skin flange. It also had the original Tama/Remo ambassador heads (very worn). The snare wire is original as well. Based on the years of crudbuilt up on the drum, I don't think it was ever dissasembled or cleaned for that matter.Also after looking at many ads and posts, I know for sure this is NOT a rosewood..different wood altogether.

I did have one thought...If it is a true factory split lug, is the AW458 the right model # to use?

Most Artwoods I've seen use the mighty lugs and are AW458's

Was there a special model # for snares like this ?... like AWS458 or something ? (S for split lug).

I am also curious about the Super Mahogany finish. was it just a lacqured stain finish over a birch shell, or was it a lacqured stain finish over an outer ply of mahogany ?

Another question I have is (unrelated).. what name of badge did Tama use on the Maple MEGA8's ?A Superstar ? A ImperialStar ? or was there a special MEGA8 badge. ?

Not to worry...I have no plans to miss-represent this snare. I have a another project in the wings. ;)

This has to do with the older Tama drums Imps/Sups with the high glossfinish such as super mahogany maybe super maple & rosewood.

Some of you will already know this, but for those who do not.

I am so glad I met with a furniture restorations guy. He actually works for a high end coatings company (stains & lacquers)..

I almost made a huge mistake in trying to clean up & recoat my vintage snare (82 supermahogany)by myself. Whew…Those high gloss finishes are polyurethane and require very special materials to touch them up.

He recommends a plastic base type filler (colorized/shaded to match) for filling in the gouges that go through past the surface/stain, and into the raw wood.It is melted into the defect, then allowed to dry 2 days and then carefully scraped/smoothed and polished to blend in.After that if you must apply a new coat of Polyurethane, you have to use the right product that is compatible with the old poly’s.

another way was to use some stain to color the gouge and then melt in some clear plastic fill, then scrape/blend & polish.

The shell has to be sanded with ever finer sandpaper and coated and polished every time, starting from 500 grit and on down to 1500 grit or better. You will need to clampThe shell so it’s stable and use the right polyurethane polish and an automotive style polisher without too much pressure. He said this was all done by machine at the factory, and was sort of automated, so it would take us much longer ( a week or more.)Apparently there is also a special polish and certain tricks when polishing as well.

I almost tried sanding mine down and just re-spraying it with a regular high gloss lacquer. He said it would have lasted about a week before the weak chemical bond broke downand the new surface started to come off. Yikes !!!

Polyurethane needs a catalyzing agent/ process to happen with every coat for proper bonding to occur.

Be very carefull when restoring your old snares, no matter what type of finish. I almost ruined a very nice and possibly rare snare.

Take the time to check with an expert.

He did say that based on his knowledge of wood types and veneer construction that the supermahogany is a birch shell with a mahogany outer veneer.He said that because of the way the outer veneer plys are laid up/bent, combined with the high gloss finish, that it givesthe outer veneer a weird looking grain pattern that can sometimes look like it is a faux finish.Not to worry he said...it's mahogany.

The shell is all birch my friend. Super Mahogany is just a name for the finish. Super Mahogany contains no mahogany, Super Maple contains no maple, Candy Apple Red contains no apples and Piano Black no pianos...

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